The Detroit Red Wings are sticking with Jonas Gustavsson as their backup man.

Indications are the Wings will soon re-sign Gustavsson, who is eligible for unrestricted free agency July 1.

"I've been talking to Gustavsson's agent,” general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press today. "He played good for us. We'd like to keep him."

During front-office meetings earlier this month, management and team scouts debated options for the no. 2 goaltending position. One was to retain Gustavsson. Another was to add someone else via the UFA market. A third option was to consider giving the job to Petr Mrazek, the hot young prospect who has been turning heads in Grand Rapids for two years.

Ultimately, the decision favored Gustavsson. He went 16-5-4 last season with a .907 save percentage and 2.63 goals-against average, appearing in 27 games. He was considered the team's savior during the first half, especially so after a November that saw no. 1 man Jimmy Howard stumble and fumble. Gustavsson's dependable service was exactly what the Wings needed to see from him after he turned in so disastrous a debut during the lockout-shortened 2013 season that he never played after March of that year.

This year, Gustavsson ended up playing in the last two games of the Wings' season, subbing in for Howard in Game 4 of the first-round series against Boston after Howard came down with flu. Gustavsson stayed in for Game 5, going 0-2 with a .917 save percentage and 2.71 goals-against average in what was his first NHL playoff experience.

"He played well for us this season and we have interest in him coming back," Holland said.

Negotiations center on term - Gustavsson's camp wants two years, while the Wings would prefer a one-year extension. Gustavsson, 29, is coming off a two-year, $3 million contract.

The biggest reservation about keeping Gustavsson was his health - he has been especially vulnerable to groin injuries, shelving him for stretches of both seasons he's been with the Wings. That said, there is no backup goalie headed for the open market who'd be an upgrade. As for Mrazek, he is only 22, and, he's only just finished his second season with the Griffins. From the Wings' point of view, he'd be better off being the go-to guy in Grand Rapids than an every-other-week player in Detroit.

Gustavsson's past year includes being part of the Swedish Olympic men's team that took silver in Sochi.

Don't like it at all. Mrazek doesn't need another year in Grand Rapids with nothing to prove. Monster is too much of a risk as a backup and quite frankly, he wasn't good the second half of the season either.

Personally, I like the move. Maybe someone who paid more attention to the Griffins can chime in, but to me it seemed as if with McCollum having the year that he did, Mrazek didn't really get a chance to take the ball and run with it. With Coreau and Paterson serving as back-ups in GR, Mrazek is going to be the workhorse down there and should get 45-50 games.

Worst case scenario for Detroit is that one of the guys goes down with an injury, and Pete comes up to play. I don't see an issue with giving him a full season being "the man" in the AHL, regardless of how ready he thinks he is. He'll wind up challenging Howie for the starting spot before you know it.

Don't like it at all. Mrazek doesn't need another year in Grand Rapids with nothing to prove. Monster is too much of a risk as a backup and quite frankly, he wasn't good the second half of the season either.

Mrazek needs to play. If Howard is healthy, he's playing 60 games or so, leaving less than 25 for the backup. It's not very often that a kid with waiver exemptions is brought in to backup an established starter. It also gives them a 3rd goalie that they can trust to com in and play if there is a long term injury. Would you really like to see a tandem of Mrazek and McCollum for a month if Howard goes down with a serious injury? This way Mrazek can come up and split time with a guy who has shown he can be at least adequate in Gustavsson.

Personally, I like the move. Maybe someone who paid more attention to the Griffins can chime in, but to me it seemed as if with McCollum having the year that he did, Mrazek didn't really get a chance to take the ball and run with it. With Coreau and Paterson serving as back-ups in GR, Mrazek is going to be the workhorse down there and should get 55-60 games.
Worst case scenario for Detroit is that one of the guys goes down with an injury, and Pete comes up to play. I don't see an issue with giving him a full season being "the man" in the AHL, regardless of how ready he thinks he is. He'll wind up challenging Howie for the starting spot before you know it.

Coreau will be in Toledo..Paterson probably will also if Mrazek is a Griffin and they resign McCollum

Think they should throw $2.4M at Chad Johnson and call it a day. He's more reliable health-wise and was one of the reasons the Coyotes even came close to pushing the Red Wings for a playoff spot in 2012-13 (he went 2-0-2 in games he started, and won another where he replaced the starter) and he propelled the Bruins to the #1 spot in 2013-14 with 17-4-3. He saved 2% more goals than Gustavsson did last year. Projected over a standard season as a backup, where the average game is 30 shots against and the average backup plays 25 games, that's a difference of 15 goals against... and he showed this when playing for Phoenix, too.

Martin Brodeur Why not? I mean come on Ken Holland! Give this guy a chance! I mean why not? He could be the difference. Like Hasek was in 2002. Where is the Old Ken Holland the one that signed the big named players? I mean really. I miss the old Ken Holland. I think they have the real one on some Island or something and they give us his Twin or something because the old Holland would be going after Martin or some other Big Named Goalie. I mean what the heck Holland. Holland should let me be the GM for Two days because I could do a better job than him seriously. I've been a fan of the Detroit Red Wings since 1996 so I know what it takes to make this team great again.

Martin Brodeur Why not? I mean come on Ken Holland! Give this guy a chance! I mean why not? He could be the difference. Like Hasek was in 2002. Where is the Old Ken Holland the one that signed the big named players? I mean really. I miss the old Ken Holland. I think they have the real one on some Island or something and they give us his Twin or something because the old Holland would be going after Martin or some other Big Named Goalie. I mean what the heck Holland. Holland should let me be the GM for Two days because I could do a better job than him seriously. I've been a fan of the Detroit Red Wings since 1996 so I know what it takes to make this team great again.

Yes clearly Brodeur could propel this team to a Stanley Cup. Why did no one think of this before?

Played great? Must have bee watching a different guy than me. lets see.... Save % by month:

oct-.937 which is very good in 4 games

Nov-.916 which is good in 4 games

Dec-.900 which is poor in 9 games

jan-.893 which is bad in 4 games

feb-.978 which is awesome, but was only 1 1/3 games

mar-.887 which is terrible in 2 games

april-.840 which is beyond terrible in 2 game

All are regular season games/numbers

Gus started out ok in the first 2 month, then played lie crap the last 4 months. He is not a quality G in any terms. The more he plays the worse he gets. His career regular season save % is .900 which is bad. Let him go already. Besides he will get hurt-more groin issues.

Coreau will be in Toledo..Paterson probably will also if Mrazek is a Griffin and they resign McCollum

Who says McCollum is going to sign with GR again? If anything, that would run against the idea of Mrazek going back to GR because he's going to be their workhorse, and get in plenty of games. This past year, McCollum showed he can play at the AHL level (46 games) and would only serve to complicate Mrazek's situation down there (32 games). You want Petr getting in about 50ish games if he can - to dominate down there.

I think it would be in the best interests of the Red Wings/Griffins and McCollum to let him go start for another AHL club, or see if another NHL club will give him a shot as a back-up. Having Paterson/Coreau battle over the back-up position makes sense, with the other one playing in the ECHL.

Who says McCollum is going to sign with GR again? If anything, that would run against the idea of Mrazek going back to GR because he's going to be their workhorse, and get in plenty of games. This past year, McCollum showed he can play at the AHL level (46 games) and would only serve to complicate Mrazek's situation down there (32 games). You want Petr getting in about 50ish games if he can - to dominate down there.
I think it would be in the best interests of the Red Wings/Griffins and McCollum to let him go start for another AHL club, or see if another NHL club will give him a shot as a back-up. Having Paterson/Coreau battle over the back-up position makes sense, with the other one playing in the ECHL.

I agree with you completely, however id really likely to see McCollum get another shot. He seems like a late bloomer who was rattled by the NHL early on. I think Coreau was signed to offset the departure of McCollum, but now Tom has rebounded and shown 1st round pick promise again.

1. Mrazek
2. Patterson
3. McCollum
4. Coreau

That's the order of priority IMO. I'd be ok with McCollum backing up Mrazek, but I'm a bit troubled sending Patterson to Toledo

I agree with you completely, however id really likely to see McCollum get another shot. He seems like a late bloomer who was rattled by the NHL early on. I think Coreau was signed to offset the departure of McCollum, but now Tom has rebounded and shown 1st round pick promise again.

1. Mrazek
2. Patterson
3. McCollum
4. Coreau

That's the order of priority IMO. I'd be ok with McCollum backing up Mrazek, but I'm a bit troubled sending Patterson to Toledo

I've been of the same mindset, only I wanted that shot to come as the Wings' back-up. I know it would be risky, but I thought it would be worth a look for one year, especially if Monster wasn't willing to sign for one year.

The thing is, if you're giving Tom a contract, it's because you believe in him as a goalie again. At this juncture, I think he would need to start the games that he did this past season to be effective. Mrazek and McCollum might end up pulling a 40-36 split or something again, which I don't think benefits either goalie. Both goalies should be looking to start the majority of games - be that workhorse at the AHL level.

Sweet. This dude was brought here for one reason, to punch people in the head - every other thing that he can do, other Wings can do better. I like that we have a head-puncher. The league has other, better head-punchers, but this one is ours. Better than nothing. Good work, Kenny!